The link closes as Otto accelerates into motion towards the back door and out.

The pulsed shout ripples out across the Etheric and radio waves, pushing out through the back door, Otto finds himself in an alleyway, his heavy feet crunching on the old cobbles.
Back in the main street he hears the crash of metal colliding with wood and metal.

Quickly getting his bearings Otto is once again struck by the deathly stillness to the area, quickly he jogs up the sloping alley coming to a row of larger houses running east to west along the top of the hill.

To his left is the stone archway of the first houses garden gate, a wooden lancet gate swinging idly in the evening breeze.

The awful quiet is once again interrupted by the movement of mechanics.

Upon natural instinct, Otto brandishes the pistol around the hallway as he leans against the door to close it.

He looks around for a hat stand or shoe rack inside the door, to gauge who might live (who might have lived) in this place.

Spot of 16

From a playback of the sounds on his headware, does Otto have any idea what the other sounds, as well as the machines movements were?

Arcanus wrote: Back in the main street he hears the crash of metal colliding with wood and metal.

Using the same playback facility, can I glean what this may have been? Something falling, moving etc?

Computer use 9

As these thoughts come to him, so does the crushing realisation that this place seems to be in the throes of an invasion from a technologically superior aggressor. Not dissimilar to experiences he had witnessed working as a military contractor in the Dragon Empire.

Maybe it was Empire itself? he mused. Although from his life on Gothica he had also seen the sanctions and control of the technological advancements that the Empire had imposed on the planet, to regulate the trade of its mineral resources.

But then there had been examples of the complete subjugation and conquest of Worlds meted out by the Empire, he reasoned.

Otto begins to move slowly up the corridor and then up the first two steps of the stairs.

He stops, and gives out a hissing whisper hoping the person can hear him but hopefully not loud enough to alert the invaders.
'Fella! I'm a friend alroight? Get out of the room and stay as close as you can to the middle of the house away from the windows an' outer walls. I'm camin' ap. ' he whispers. 'We may have company, knock once softly if you understand'

Not entirely certain of who or what is up there, Otto waits for a response and stays deathly still and silent. Doing exactly what he instructed the 'person' to do.

Arcane Electricity ominously flows around the circuitry of Ottos right arm, hurtling up the stairway he emerges onto a hallway running along the top of the house.

Laid on the floor is a girl of around 10 or 11, she's clutching her right wrist, a shotgun lays on the floor several feet in front of her, from the way the carpet runner is rucked up the discharge of the weapon blew her along the hall and painfully into one of the doors.

As Otto surveys this floor, he hears a crash and the splitting of wood from down below.

Otto's headware starts to extrapolate the missing dimensions of rooms he hasn't visited, but the measurements of the building. He hears a metallic clicking two floors below, upon the airwaves he detects gibberic chatter and grunted response.

The girl moans but otherwise dosen't respond, she appears pale and her breathing is rasped, her wrist is clearly broken having now turned an unpleasant deep red.

I will empower the pistol rounds to a low velocity with high explosive glyphs with shaped charge blasts.

Tech Magery 11

This house we are in, is it part of a terrace of houses? I fear I will not be able to move the girl quickly, so I will looking at possibly relocating to another house through the walls.

Is the stairs I came up the only access to this level? Unless they come through the windows?

'I'm getting you out of here.'' Otto smiles reassuringly as he kneels down beside her.

Charisma 9

Scan the girl for injuries using my full spectrum of vision enhancements.

Biology 14

Otto breaks open the girls shotgun, removes and empowers the remaining shell with explosive and electrical properties. He then bends the gun barrel, reloads the weapon and closes the breach. He cocks the weapon iand places it in front of the damaged door. With his hardware display and memory, he locks on the the firing mechanism.

'This will help you love, don't worry.' He whispers as he fits the rebreather on the girl, and flicks a switch on it which administers an analgesic vapor to assist her breathing which will also contain a medium painkiller

'Lucky I updated this bit of kit after my last travelling mishap!' He thought grimly.

Otto will quickly set to sorting out a makeshift splint for the girls wrist from his first aid kit. There is no way I can move her without causing grevious damage.

'You've broken you wrist sweetheart.' he whispers in her ear. 'And I'm going to have to set the bone and it's going to hurt.You're going to have to be really brave and not make a sound ok? But you've already proved to me you're brave, and a fighter too.'

Leadership 12

Charisma 14

'Don't worry about those bastards, they're not a patch on me! I'll send them to hell if they come up here' he growls.

Have I plotted what wall will hopefully take me into another house if we are pressed?

All of my movements so far would be using the swift strider ability, except for the talking to the girl.

This would take into consideration the time that has elapsed so far.
Fire up the floating disc also. It will remain invisible at present.

Otto wrote:'This will help you love, don't worry.' He whispers as he fits the rebreather on the girl, and flicks a switch on it which administers an analgesic vapor to assist her breathing which will also contain a medium painkiller
'Lucky I updated this bit of kit after my last travelling mishap!' He thought grimly.
Otto will quickly set to sorting out a makeshift splint for the girls wrist from his first aid kit. There is no way I can move her without causing grievous damage.
'You've broken you wrist sweetheart.' he whispers in her ear. 'And I'm going to have to set the bone and it's going to hurt.You're going to have to be really brave and not make a sound ok? But you've already proved to me you're brave, and a fighter too.'

The girls eyes flutter open as the medicinal breather clears her system and provides relief, she nods in understanding seeming to recognize Otto's voice from her bout of unconsciousness.

Otto wrote:Have I plotted what wall will hopefully take me into another house if we are pressed?

arcanus wrote:yes, your still on the landing, however the far wall is adjacent to the next house, the walls however look to be good sound stone so some force would be required.

The arcane disk materializes, mentally Otto senses his Arcane batteries diminishing slightly, still good for a few hours.

The metallic clicks now draw closer, as is their owner is mounting the stairs.

Otto will use character/deed points whilst incorporating swift strider with Biology/First aid to ensure that the wrist is splinted super quick and correctly.

Magery of 10

Biology/First Aid 13

Otto had a sudden stab of anxiety over their predicament. He had already seen the firepower of the Imperial walking machine, and now thought with certainty that they wanted him and the girl alive, otherwise the heat beam would have been brought to bear on the house.

The scale of destruction, and the lack of people around the streets (even in a time of war there normally were always pockets of people) raised other ominous and sinister thoughts and questions which he was in no position to answer at the present.

Otto will set the pistol to silenced mode (essentially an even lower velocity) and set a delayed reaction explosion on the explosive shaped charge rounds.

I hope to the Maker that that machine isn't outside waiting for us to make a bolt for it.

'Whatever I do, no questions, just trust me.'Otto whispers with conviction to the girl as he secures a sling for her arm with a blur of motion.

Otto has administered a strong temporary location specific painkiller in her arm, enabling her to at least grip it.

'Now jump up and hold onto me, and wrap your legs around my waist.'

He stands, and gathering the girl into his chest in a protective embrace, he quickly raises his pistol to the wall which overlooks the back street.

The subtle repeating clack of the firing mechanism sounds as the pistol jumps in his hand with the recoil.

Otto will fire in a circular motion, six shots of the timed high explosive shaped charge rounds at the wall eqaudistant from each other

Pistol of 13

With his spare hand he grips the floating disc and dashes towards the wall, he has timed it to the millisecond so before the blast occurs he will spin around (thus protecting the girl from any unplanned shrapnel) and empty the clip into the wooden floor around the booby trapped shotgun.

His forward momentum will still take them both out of the hole that has been made and hopefully they will drop slowly to the floor. Otto will adjust the weight allowances of the disc to speed up their descent but not fast enough to cause them injury.

Once down on the floor, (If he's successful!) Otto will automatically break into the next house across the road (front or back door) and run straight through the house. He will continue going through houses in this fashion still holding the girl until all signs of pursuit have ceased.

Plaster and masonry explodes outwards as Otto turns, the girl having obediantly climbed aboard and clung on for dear life.

As he turns and discharges the shotgun, he see's a metallic form similar to a mechanical chicken in the doorway, although the most disturbing aspect of the form is the two tendrils whipping around from its sides, each resembling a blood red earthworm a meter in length.

The automaton starts forward, the blast battering it sideways but otherwise failing to impede its advance.

Otto allows himself to be carried by the blast out of the house and down, as the pair descend a thin jet of black vapour projects from its blocky head, a hideous obnoxious tongue pursuing them as they fall.

The discs Etherial technology struggles with the weight of two, but does its job of bringing the pair to a bumpy landing.

Along the cobbled back alley they now find themselves in, Black Smoke gathers from the automaton, its head now rotated 180 degrees to maintain its fire whilst clambering out of the hole with its metallic clawed feet.

As Otto looks to the back gate of another house, he see's a flash of heat followed by an earsplitting whumph, an explosion of superheated air!
He winces as the chimney stack of the house ruptures, slate from the forward facing slope shatters as a blast of immense heat tears into the front of the house.